Iowa State quarterback Brock Purdy is hugged by head coach Matt Campbell after running for a touchdown against Baylor at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames on Saturday, Nov. 10, 2018.(Photo11: Bryon Houlgrave, The Register)Buy Photo

AMES, Ia. — I called Alamo Bowl CEO Derrick Fox from the press box Nov. 10 while watching Iowa State beat Baylor in Ames. The Cyclones were on his bowl’s radar.

I knew he was a straight-shooter, from our past conversations when I was writing about Iowa football and the Alamo.

He gave me the boilerplate “absolutely, Iowa State is on the radar” line, but then he started to tip his hand.

“Did you see the crowd of Iowa State fans that came down (to San Antonio) for the NCAA Regional?” he asked. “That was impressive.”

I was there. I saw the way Cyclones fans stood out on the River Walk during the 2014 tournament, so when Fox mentioned that — that’s when I figured Matt Campbell’s team would be headed to the Alamo.

If Iowa State was on the board when it came time for that bowl’s selection — boom. Thus, the Cyclones are off to San Antonio to face 13th-ranked Washington State.

So as we inch closer to the 8 p.m. Dec. 28 game (ESPN), it’s apparent that Iowa State football fans again will own the destination-point River Walk. They’ll own it just like they own Kansas City’s Power and Light District during the Big 12 Conference's basketball tournament, and just like they stormed the Lahaina Civic Center to watch Steve Prohm’s basketball team go 2-1 in the Maui Invitational before Thanksgiving.

“We know that in prior years, Iowa State expressed an interest coming to our bowl, but it hadn’t worked out,” Fox told us on last week’s Cyclone Insider radio show. “We know Iowa State fans are a fun group to be with. No matter whether it’s been in Memphis, Phoenix or now San Antonio — their fans show up in big numbers.

Iowa State is already into its second batch of Alamo Bowl tickets, with the initial allotment of 12,000 being sold in a matter of days.

Breaking News: We sold all of our 12,000 tickets to the @valeroalamobowl. GOOD NEWS: Alamo Bowl Staff has allocated more tickets to us so keep on ordering tickets. We are almost at 13,000 tickets sold and counting!

Word around the Iowa State administrative offices is that the school requested more tickets barely 24 hours after last Sunday afternoon’s announcement. They knew the ticket-buying was inevitable.

They knew their fans would turn out — even more so than the 20,000 or so that were estimated to be in the stands at the Liberty Bowl last bowl season in Memphis.

It’s staggering, really, to think that a program that laid a Big 12 goose egg in 2014 was suddenly the conference's first pick after automatic bids were handed out.

Yes, "suddenly" is the appropriate word.

Campbell inherited a bad program in December 2015. In a matter of 37 games, and in the only Power Five conference without a scheduling loophole that doesn’t provide skipping traditional powers in some years, Iowa State was voluntary selection No. 1.

And the fans — they’ll be there, too.

Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell walks on the field before an NCAA college football game against Texas Tech, Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018, in Ames, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)(Photo11: Charlie Neibergall, AP)

“It’s going to be a fun time,” athletics director Jamie Pollard told The Register last week. “It’s great for recruiting, great for future bowl propaganda and marketing — and it’s good for the bowl itself.”

Pollard was either an associate or deputy athletics director at Wisconsin between 1998 and 2005. The Badgers faced Colorado in the 2002 Alamo Bowl, so he knows all about San Antonio.

He’d been telling Fox for a long time that if the Alamo ever had an opportunity to select Iowa State, “it will be like no other.”

The moment has finally arrived.

“Between Dec. 26th and 28th, the River Walk will be almost like a pep rally for Iowa State — 24/7,” Pollard told me. “It will feel like that.”

“I just stuck to two points — we earned it because it was decided on the field,” he said, referring to the Cyclones’ 30-14 victory against West Virginia. “We tied for third, but we had the tiebreaker.

“I also said, 'I’m confident our fans will deliver. They always have.' And I had no reason to believe they wouldn’t deliver again.

“Our fans are going to get to enjoy Iowa State’s best bowl ever.”

Iowa State columnist Randy Peterson has been with the Register for parts of five decades. Randy writes opinion and analysis of Iowa State football and basketball. You can reach Randy at rpeterson@dmreg.com or on Twitter at @RandyPete.